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Cthulhu Mythos
The Cthulhu Mythos is a mythology based on the work of American horror writer H. P. Lovecraft. It has the more narrow sense of only including stories made by him directly, and the wider sense of including fanfiction. The name Cthulhu derives from the central creature in Lovecraft's seminal short story, "The Call of Cthulhu", first published in the pulp magazine Weird Tales in 1926. In his essay "H. P. Lovecraft and the Cthulhu Mythos", Robert M. Price described two stages in the development of the Cthulhu Mythos. Price called the first stage the "Cthulhu Mythos proper." This stage was formulated during Lovecraft's lifetime and was subject to his guidance. The second stage was guided by August Derleth who, in addition to publishing Lovecraft's stories after his death, attempted to categorize and expand the Mythos under the belief that lovecraft did not intend for these stories to be limited to his own writing. Some of the beings from the cthulhu mythos will show up alongside other demons and gods in-game being treated as if they were just another god or being in that world, and their religions were just another religion. Most notably, Nyarlathotep is a villain in the early persona games, and a few beings like cthulhu show up as demons in some games, most notably SMTII, where some are seen riding the meggido ark. There are also some things that call lovecraftian type themes of cosmic indifference to mind, such as the star beings in devil survivor 2. General info An ongoing theme in Lovecraft's work is the complete irrelevance of mankind in the face of the cosmic horrors that apparently exist in the universe. Lovecraft made frequent references to the "Great Old Ones", a loose pantheon of ancient, powerful deities from space who once ruled the Earth and have since fallen into a deathlike sleep. While these monstrous deities have been present in almost all of Lovecraft's published work (his second short story Dagon is considered the start of the mythos), the first story to really expand the pantheon of Great Old Ones and its themes is The Call of Cthulhu, which was published in 1928. Lovecraft broke with other pulp writers of the time by having his main characters' minds deteriorate when afforded a glimpse of what exists outside their perceived reality. He emphasized the point by stating in the opening sentence of the story that "The most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability of the human mind to correlate all its contents." Writer Dirk W. Mosig notes that Lovecraft embraced the philosophy of cosmic indifference. Lovecraft believed in a purposeless, mechanical, and uncaring universe. Human beings, with their limited faculties, can never fully understand this universe, and if they become aware enough even of how much they cannot, the cognitive dissonance caused by this revelation leads to insanity, in his view. This was not only an anti religious view, but often anti science as well, considering that anything that puts humanity too close to this truth puts them at risk for a mental breakdown. Within the stories, the incomprehensible, cosmic forces of his tales have as little regard for humanity as humans have for insects, and often human survival thus far has only been due to simply being so small scale that these things do not notice them. As such, while the stories are not literal, the fact that they were used as a mythical depiction of a worldview gives some context for treating them similarly to other mythologies. While later writers would try to spin there as being a struggle against these gods at times, maybe in the form of good or evil or at least something slightly better for humans versus less, lovecraft's stories themselves had no tone of this. Fighting back against these beings was not possible, and all one could hope to do is be ignored by them as long as possible / hope not to unseal the ones who would have to be unsealed to enter the world. One obvious depiction of cosmic indifference in the games is shown in record breaker, with the septentriones who its depicted as unclear if they even have something analogous to our minds, and later the triangulum, who are shown as indifferent, being willing to wipe out humanity in favor of a goal that seems entirely abstract to humans. Unlike lovecraftian depictions, these are depicted as something however that it is possible to stand up against. As far as why some lovecraftian beings are shown in the meggido ark in SMTII, this may have to do with a few things. Note how in devil survivor 2 the septentriones and triangulum are considered orderly beings, albeit an order that is alien and doesn't particularly care about humanity. So atlus seems to depict cosmic universal concepts of order as related to order more than chaos. And while the beings in lovecraft's stories generally act chaotic, from a cosmic angle one can interpret them as representing a type of higher cosmic order. In context though, what they represent is cosmic indifference. Unlike in-game chaos, these functions are not depicted as something individual humans can get in on, but something irrevocably far bigger than humanity, and which makes humans seem small in comparison. Which seems closer to how atlus depicts the cosmic aspect of order than it does how it depicts chaos. This cosmic indifference being lumped in with the beings on the meggido ark seems to have a few aspects. First, as a criticism of classical theism, and its focus on god which it is presenting as self depreciating to humanity. In-game, Law itself is willing to sacrifice people for the greater good, which atlus thinks is alien and surreal, being about large scale indifference to the individual in favor of larger focuses. But more importantly, yhvh himself when corrupt doesn't seem to care about people as individuals, just them being worshipers. Which is a shared aspect with the normal law focus, albeit one depicted as more corrupt. And atlus seems to be presenting believing in this type of god as a self depreciating view for people to have, since it revolves around the insignificance of individuals in the face of larger things. Yhvh here then would represent the lack of humans being treated individually valuable in systems where what matters is god, as well as the realization that one needs an alternate form of value that empowers humanity (Or if they are meant to be associated with law in general, the idea that utilitarianism does not treat individuals as significant). Yhvh is depicted as something that can't foster in humanity a concept of individual value, since it places the value somewhere distant. Humans by defeating this are rejecting this perspective, and arguing for their own significance, which is by extension similar to rejecting the view proposed by lovecraft. Its ironically depicting the theistic view and the view of cosmic indifference as two sides of the same coin. The death of god normally seems like a loss of value because you were taught to place the value far away from yourself. But you are also meant to overcome the idea that the death of god means loss of meaning, and so to "defeat" these cosmic representations of lack of value also. In neutral, it ends with hiroko saying that there is no one to cling to anymore, but that you have eachother. So there is realization of a level of cosmic indifference, but rather than accepting it, rejecting it in favor of believing your own lives give themselves value. So it can also represent cosmic indifference in general, and as such the lack of an ability to find meaning by trying to find it somewhere external to humanity. Lovecraft of course wasn't depicting this cosmic indifference as something you can defeat, but that is also what is being rejected. In addition it may reference the purported impossibility of understanding god often professed by Christianity. An element of moving beyond the bounds of human comprehension. Interestingly, in SMTII, satan and the Lovecraftian beings seem to be depicted as a continuous aesthetic. Satan of course being based on the art of h r giger, which ties to the underlying meaninglessness of biological reality underneath the human constructs. Which while not identical to the meaning of lovecraftian stories, is similar in tone to them in the sense of an underlying emptiness relating to human endeavor. The Necronomicon is a fictional grimoire (tome of magic). It was first mentioned in the short story The Hound written by H. P. Lovecraft, but its exact origin is the subject of debate. The book subsequently also appeared in stories of Lovecraft's followers. The Necronomicon has since gained a cult following and various fake "replicas" of the book are circulating. In the context of Lovecraft's works, the Necronomicon is a tome detailing the truth behind the various ancient cosmic beings that have inhabited Earth and continue to influence humans for their own ends. Written in the 8th century by the "mad Arab" Abdul Alhazred, it both functions as a means of imparting the forbidden knowledge of the ancient ones, and a source of danger as those who read it risk going mad from its knowledge. It shows up as futaba's persona in persona 5. Types of beings In addition to the beings listed, note that there are other lesser beings of various natures that do not have a specific classification. Of the entries listed here, the much more relevant are the first two Outer gods are the beings of the highest level of power in the mythos. They function on a cosmic scale, and are able to go anywhere, having near unlimited influence relative to humanity. Humans are safe from them only because their scale is for the most part too large to even bother considering humanity. The Great Old Ones are powerful, ancient creatures worshipped by deranged human cults. Many of them are made of an unearthly material with properties unlike normal matter. A Great Old One's influence is often limited to the planet where it dwells. If it is based on a planet outside the solar system, it can only extend its influence to Earth when the star of its planetary system is in the night sky. In such cases, the help of cultists performing various rituals may be required. As such, while humans cannot fight back against them directly in much of a meaningful sense, they can at times undo the situation which allows some of them to influence earch. The Great Ones are the so-called "gods" of the Dreamlands, but they are not as powerful as the Great Old Ones and are not even as intelligent as most humans. However, they are protected by the Outer Gods, especially Nyarlathotep. The Dream Cycle is a series of short stories that concern themselves with the "Dreamlands", a vast, alternate dimension that can only be entered via dreams. The Elder Gods oppose both the Outer Gods and the Great Old Ones although they were not created by lovecraft himself for his own stories, but came up with later on. Many consider them to be non-Lovecraftian, because they seem to introduce a good versus evil dichotomy into the cosmic indifference of Lovecraft's fiction. However, others argue that these beings have no more concern for human notions of morality than the beings they oppose, and that humanity and the human world are beneath their regard. Specific beings Azathoth, sometimes called "The Blind Idiot God", the "Nuclear Chaos" and the "Daemon Sultan", is an Outer God, being the original being in reality. Azathoth is seen as all-powerful and the creator of all of existence, though it now exists in rest. All of reality is a random fluctuation created randomly by its throes in its mindless movements. However, Azathoth, whilst he is asleep, is not all-knowing (being a "Blind Idiot God") and is completely mindless. It is said to be stuck in an endless slumber and is served upon by countless lesser deities that play a maddening tune on innumerable drums and flutes to keep Azathoth from awakening, because if it woke up even for a second, the shock would fundamentally destroy everything within reality as it moves. As well as its innumerable drummers Azathoth is tended upon by horrendous dancers and is said to float in the very centre of the universe in the centre of chaos itself (and hence "nuclear" may actually refer to its dwelling at the nucleus of the universe), no mortal has yet entered this realm and survived Azathoth's precise appearance is only hinted at throughout the Mythos, and indeed may be unknowable by mortal beings. It is described as occupying a position outside of the universe, where it is attended by a cohort of alien servants who continually bathe it with the sounds of pipes and drums. Though it is the ruler and creator of all existence, it is described as "a blind idiot god," oblivious to the universe and the beings within it. Azathoth is technically "God," despite not being aware. He cannot be destroyed as the concept of destruction is merely part of his dream, and he exists beyond the concept of speed, strength, mortals and the Outer Gods as they are all merely part of his dream. Despite being mindless, Azathoth does have a will of his own and commands his messanger and avatar, Nyarlathotep. Its only appearance in the games is in giten as a vile race being. The Nameless Mist is an Outer God. It is the progenitor of several other cosmic entities, including the Outer God Yog-Sothoth. It is older than everything except Azathoth (its creator) and the Unnamed Darkness (its sibling). What became of them is unknown, since time as it stands holds yog-sothoth which came from them as the strongest being. Yog-Sothoth 'is the most powerful of the outer gods, not counting azathoth who has no consciousness. It is the largest and most intelligent - dwarfing Cthulhu in the same scale that Cthulhu dwarfs humanity. Yog-Sothoth is the embodiment of all of time and space across an essentially infinite number of space-time continuums, for all intents and purpose, he is connected to the multiverse. He is the grandfather of Cthulhu. Yog-Sothoth is not only an essentially all-knowing, all-seeing and all-powerful being, but he also, like the fellow Outer God Nyarlathotep, has displayed to possess numerous avatars, such as the Lurker at the Threshold, and has served as the Godly father of Wilbur Whateley, The Dunwich Horror and the spouse of Shub-Niggurath. Yog-Sothoth is a limitless cosmic horror that is connected with all of space and time yet is locked away from mainstream reality - the monstrous deity sees all and knows all and can impart knowledge to anyone foolish enough to seek its favor, which often required human sacrifice or worse and would ultimately bring calamity and ruin to the would-be-follower. Like many Lovecraftian deities Yog-Sothoth has a number of avatars and even followers (such as the Chorazos Cult). Like many Lovecraftian gods, Yog-Sothoth is thoroughly indescribable and unconcievable, way beyond human comprehension, and those in his presence can only perceive an approximation. He was described in many different ways throughout the various stories of the mythos, by various authors. However, there seems to be a common agreement that Yog-Sothoth visually manifests as a mass of glowing orbs that continuously merge, regrow and break apart, with eyes or tendrils in some versions. In ''At the Mountains of Madness, he is portrayed as a huge mass of yellow tendrils and in Beyond the Gates of the Silver Key, he is shown as a large creature with eyes and tendrils. Yog-Sothoth is one of, if not the, most powerful being in the Cthulhu Mythos. Being the Outer God of time and space, Yog-Sothoth has control over all of space and time. Yog-Sothoth is itself all of the spacetime continuum and is omnipresent. Likely Yog-Sothoh's defining trait is his omniscience; Yog-Sothoth sees all, knows all, and is all, and possesses the vast sapience that not even its grandfather can lay claim to. Every being that possesses intelligence is considered a mere facet of Yog-Sothoth, from a mere human to the most complex Outer God. He has also shown to be able to bestow this omniscience to those he deems worthy, such as Randolph Carter. He is, by all technicalities, indestructible and immortal for it is implied that nothing short of Azathoth awakening could truly get rid of him. He exists outside of the universe in an omnilock. The entity is so powerful that merely seeing it or learning too much about its existence would drive one insane and create disaster. He is considered to be absolutely boundless from the perspectives of almost all beings, but is in truth implicitly restricted by Azathoth. Regardless, Yog-Sothoth is considered to be of equal importance to Azathoth as just as nothing can be created without Azathoth, nothing can exist without Yog-Sothoth. In persoa 2, Yog Sothoth appears as an optional boss in the Extra Dungeon. He is fought at the end of class 3-A in order to obtain the White Butterfly. After being defeated, he starts appearing as a normal encounter. Note tat just like many other godly beings in megaten, the in universe versions are nothing like the levels of power their myths imply. '''Nyarlathotep, also known by many other names including the Crawling Chaos, is an evil Outer God. While almost all beings in the mythos are considered too alien to even make sense of, nyarlathotep is one of the few who actually has a mind capable of understanding and having spite for humans. While nowhere near as powerful as his creator Azathoth, nor the cosmic entity Yog-Sothoth, he remains to be an Outer God and as such Nyarlothotep is immortal and incredibly powerful while also being too highly complex to be understood. He is seen as a shapeshifting agent of madness, chaos and ruin who serves the other Outer Gods, specifically his father, Azathoth, the Blind Idiot God, who he is subservient to, fulfilling his wishes without question as his messenger and emissary. Note that since azathoth is considered mindless, what sense this even happens in is meant to be incomprehensible. He often visits Earth and enjoys bringing madness and suffering to inferior beings (humans are among them). It is said that he will bring destruction to Earth and he spends his time manipulating and deceiving humans for his own sadistic pleasure, and enjoys driving people insane more than merely killing them. Some suggest that he may be the one who will ultimately end the world. Nyarlathotep is described as a master shapeshifter with over a thousand forms, many of which are seen as monstrous and capable of driving mortals insane - a trait common to Lovecraftian monsters, however unlike many of the other Outer Gods, he also frequently takes on a human form as an enigmatic male fashioned on an ancient Egyptian Pharaoh. He is able to manifest as a large number of avatars, some of which are even worshiped as their own being by people unaware that they are part of a greater being. Nyarlathotep's first appearance is in the eponymous short story by Lovecraft, in which he is described as a "tall, swarthy man" who resembles an Egyptian Pharaoh. In this story he wanders the earth, gathering legions of followers through his demonstrations of strange and seemingly magical instruments, the narrator of the story among them. These followers lose awareness of the world around them, and through the narrator's increasingly unreliable accounts the reader gets a sense of the world's utter collapse. The story ends with the narrator as part of an army of servants for Nyarlathotep. He is given a prominent plot role, known as The Crawling Chaos, as the counterbalance to Philemon in the Persona series. Unlike Philemon, Nyarlathotep is able to operate in the outside world and take an active role. Throughout the series he employs the use of Shadow Selves of characters to accomplish his goals. Nyarlathotep is also capable of appearing as anyone he chooses. It is revealed in Eternal Punishment that he is represented by a black butterfly. In the first persona, Nyarlathotep poses as the persona of Takahisa Kandori. After Kandori is defeated by the protagonist and his friends, Nyarlathotep forcibly enters Kandori's body and transforms him into God Kandori, saying he will grant him the power he seeks. Retroactively, Nyarlathotep has been mentioned to have engineered the whole incident with the intention of giving the humans a chance to destroy all of reality, allowing him to win his bet with Philemon. In the first persona 2 Both he and Philemon are acting on a bet to see if humanity will become enlightened or ultimately destroy itself. Nyarlathotep decides to push things in his favor by helping humanity end. He appears as Jun Kurosu's late father (Akinari Kashihara), and the Fuhrer, whom was supposedly revived by rumors. He serves as the game's final boss in the form of the Great Father, a fusion of the main cast's fathers. He fills a similar role in the sequel, however, following his second defeat, he was banished to parts unknown. He wasn't destroyed forever, though, because he is an undeniable, indelible presence in Humanity's heart, and may still return. Nyarlathotep is described as the destructive side of Humanity's collective unconscious, and as such, the living embodiment of Mankind's collective evil; every thought, action or feeling that derives in experiencing the desire to bring harm to others or oneself in any form fuels Nyarlathotep's existence. His reason for providing the human race with the means to drive itself to destruction is given as a bet between him and Philemon, who holds that they instead will ascend to a greater destiny. Note the similarities between the game character and the myths, working to manipulate people and being seen as behind the potential end of the world. Aside from persona he also shows up as a vile dark law race demon. He represents presumably a view resembling the lovecraftian one of the insignificance of humanity inasmuch as it is something that can be rejected by being stood up to Cthuhlu is one of the great old ones. It is described as "A monster of vaguely anthropoid outline, but with an octopus-like head whose face was a mass of feelers, a scaly, rubbery-looking body, prodigious claws on hind and fore feet, and long, narrow wings behind." Cthulhu has been described in appearance as resembling an octopus, a dragon and a human caricature, hundreds of meters tall, with webbed human-looking arms and legs and a pair of rudimentary wings on its back.9 Cthulhu's head is depicted as similar to the entirety of a gigantic octopus, with an unknown number of tentacles surrounding its supposed mouth. Simply looking upon the creature drives the viewer insane, a trait shared by many of the Great Old Ones and Outer Gods. Cthulhu, in the ″mythos″, was probably born on the planet Vhoorl in the 23rd nebula from Nug and Yeb. At some later point he travelled to the green binary star system of Xoth, where he mated with Idh-yaa, and was later worshipped by the shape-shifting starspawn. Idh-yaa later spawned four children: Gthanothoa, Ythogtha, Zoth-ommog and Cthylla. Cthulhu and his family, as well as his starspawn, travelled to Earth where Cthulhu mated with his sister Kassogtha, who spawned Nctosa and Nctolhu. Cthulhu and his spawn then built the great green stone city of R'lyeh on the great sunken continent of Mu, before it was destroyed by Ythogtha. Around this time a great war started between the Shoggoths, Elder Things, Great Race of Yith, Flying polyps, Mi-go and Cthulhu and his children and starspawn. At the end of the war, they all decided to share the Earth. In the call of cthuhlu, The narrator, Francis Wayland Thurston, recounts his discovery of notes left behind by his grand-uncle, Brown University linguistic professor George Gammell Angell after his death in the winter of 1926–27. Among the notes is a small bas-relief sculpture of a scaly creature which yields "simultaneous pictures of an octopus, a dragon, and a human caricature." The sculptor, a Rhode Island art student named Henry Anthony Wilcox, based the work on delirious dreams of "great Cyclopean cities of titan blocks and sky-flung monoliths." Frequent references to Cthulhu and R'lyeh are found in Wilcox's papers. Angell also discovers reports of mass hysteria around the world. More notes discuss a 1908 meeting of an archeological society in which New Orleans police official John Raymond Legrasse asks attendees to identify a statuette of unidentifiable greenish-black stone resembling Wilcox's sculpture. It is then revealed that the previous year, Legrasse and a party of policemen found several women and children being used in a ritual by an all-male cult. After killing five of the cultists and arresting 47 others, Legrasse learns that they worship the "Great Old Ones" and await the return of a monstrous being called Cthulhu.2 The prisoners identify the statuette as "great Cthulhu." One of the academics present at the meeting, Princeton professor William Channing Webb, describes a group of "Esquimaux" with similar beliefs and fetishes. Thurston discovers a 1925 article from an Australian newspaper which reports the discovery of a derelict ship, the Emma, of which second mate Gustaf Johansen is the sole survivor. Johansen reports that the Emma was attacked by a heavily armed yacht named the Alert. The crewmen of the Emma killed those aboard the Alert, but lost their own ship in the battle, commandeered the Alert, and discovered an uncharted island in the vicinity of co-ordinates of 47°9′S 126°43′W. With the exception of Johansen and another man, the remaining crew died on the island. Johansen does not reveal the manner of their death. Upon traveling to Australia, Thurston views a statue retrieved from the Alert which is identical to the previous two. In Norway, he learns that Johansen died suddenly after an encounter with "two Lascar sailors". Johansen's widow provides Thurston with her late husband's manuscript, wherein the uncharted island is described as being home to a "nightmare corpse-city" called R'lyeh. Johansen's crew struggled to comprehend the non-Euclidean geometry of the city and accidentally release Cthulhu, resulting in their deaths. Johansen and one crew-mate flee aboard the Alert and are pursued by Cthulhu. Johansen rams the yacht into the creature's head, only for its injury to regenerate. The Alert escapes, but Johansen's crewmate dies. After finishing the manuscript, Thurston realizes he is now a target of Cthulhu's worshippers. In persona 2, Cthulhu resides in the Tower of Will that exists in the Kadath Mandala. Zula tells the story of Cthulhu as the master of oceans and the Mu continent and how even now he is sealed in the sunken city of the Pacific Ocean, R'lyeh, but will not die. From the bottom of the deep sea, he gives people bad dreams, devouring his followers' souls, waiting for the day he will once again take control of the world above the ground and how that day will inevitably come. When the stars show the right way once more, the old rulers will resurrect countless relatives, regaining control over the universe. The group's anger at Zula's words allow them to reject Cthulhu and what he stands for, allowing them to defeat him in battle and gain the Trapezohedron of Will. For whatever reason, in shin megami tensei II, cthuhlu is vile race as a dark law entity. He is seen on the meggido ark alongside angels. Hastur. While Hastur is best known as part of the Cthulhu Mythos, he was originally created by Ambrose Bierce in the short story "Haita The Shepherd". He later appeared in one work by HP Lovecraft, but is best known for his role in August Derleth's stories. Hastur is the half-brother of Cthulhu. He is also known in other names: The Feaster from Afar, a black, shriveled, flying monstrosity with tentacles tipped with razor-sharp talons that can pierce a victim's skull and siphon out the brain. The King in Yellow. And He Who Is Not To Be Named as saying Hastur's name three times in a row (Hastur Hastur Hastur) is a process that brings the chanter death. The King In Yellow is also the title of a book (and a book within that book) where Hastur is mentioned. The name of his material card, as well as how it must be acquired, are references to these last two names. It shows up as a persona in persona 2. Biyarky are Servants of Hastur the unspeakable, they are a race of hybrid creatures made of ordinary matter that live in interstellar space. A hybrid who is neither completely crows, nor moles, nor buzzards, nor ants, nor vampire bats, nor decomposed human beings, they can neither be fully perceived nor remembered by a sane person. They can travel through space and carry a rider, but the rider must have something capable of protecting them from the cold and vacuum of space. They can be summoned to Earth to carry out tasks or act as steeds. Found in Bomb Shelter 4, a special conversation can happen between them and Hastur. The Golden Honey will be acquired, which prevents random encounters for a while. While Estoma and Clean Salt only eliminate encounters with enemies weaker than the party, the Golden Honey prevents all encounters, even against enemies with levels equal or higher than the party's. In the new scenario for the PSP remake Tatsuya first encounters these demons in the first part, having never seen demons like them before. He realizes that they are servants of him and fights them. Umr At Tawil Meaning "The Most Ancient and Prolonged of Life", it is also said as Tawil At-U'mr or Tawil-at'Umr. It is described as an avatar of Yog Sothoth in the story "Through the Gates of the Silver Key". He presides over the timeless halls beyond the Gate of the Silver Key and the strange Ancient Ones that dwell there. He is described as the silhouette of a man behind a strange, shimmering veil. He is one of very few benign Lovecraftian Great Old Ones who does not cause insanity in those who view him. It shows up as a p2 boss. Elder things. The term "Old One" is used to refer to a god or deity, and have been used in fantasy horror and science fiction, quite commonly in H.P. Lovecraft's fiction in various context. In game they show up as a dark chaos demon of foul race. The pictured creature appears to be a member of the species which came to be known as the Elder Things, the term "Old One" being used for several different orders of creature by Lovecraft himself. The Elder Things were introduced in the short story "At the Mountains of Madness," were they are, indeed, referred to by the narrator as "the Old Ones." In the Mythos canon, the Elder Things were the first extraterrestrial species to come to the Earth, colonizing the planet about one billion years ago. They stood roughly eight feet tall and had the appearance of a huge, oval-shaped barrel with starfish-like appendages at both ends. The top appendage was a head adorned with five eyes, five eating tubes, and a set of cilia for "seeing" without light. The bottom appendage was five-limbed and was used for walking and other forms of locomotion. The beings also had five leathery, fan-like retractable wings and five sets of branching tentacles that sprouted from their torsos. Both their tentacles and the slits housing their folded wings were spaced at regular intervals about their bodies. The technology that the Elder Things possessed was not described at length, but was described as being extremely advanced, building cities on land and in the water. They are also revealed in "At the Mountains of Madness" as being the creators of a servitor race, the shoggoths, who ultimately rebelled. The Elder Things are known to have warred against the star-spawn of Cthulhu, the Great Race of Yith, and the Mi-go. Despite these conflicts, it was the gradual cooling of the planet during the last ice age that spelled their doom. Retreating to their undersea cities deep in the ocean, they would thereafter have no further dealings with the outer world. Their last surface city, located on a high plateau in the Antarctic, remains frozen in ice. The ruins of this city were discovered in 1931 by two members of an Antarctic expedition from Miskatonic University. Dagon is a deity who presides over the Deep Ones, an amphibious humanoid race indigenous to Earth's oceans. He is first introduced in Lovecraft's short story "Dagon",'' and is mentioned extensively throughout the mythos. Also known as '''Father Dagon', he is a Great Old One and the consort of Mother Hydra. He is worshipped by the Esoteric Order of Dagon, a secret cult based in Innsmouth. Dagon is an enormous specimen of True Merrow who has been mentioned in texts since ancient times. He is worshipped by a devout cult of humans and Merrow, who revere him as a deity. While apparently immortal, his longevity may be attributable to his fraternization with the Star Spawn, who sometimes select formidable specimens from a given species to protect, nurture, and empower for reasons known only to them. Lovecraft most likely based Dagon on the ancient Mesopotamian deity of the same name, who was a god of fish, fishing and fertility. In-game dagon shows up as a tyrant race demon, but with an ambiguous appearance that is unclear whether it is meant to be the lovecraftian figure or the god. Though, since they are based on eachother, it may be meant to be a composite figure as often shows up in the games. Chandraputra is the alias of the man known as Randolph Carter after his mind became trapped in an alien body. His full alias is "Swami Chandraputra" and he appears in the Lovecraft stories "Out of the Aeons" & "Through the Gates of the Silver Key". In persona 2, Appearing in the final part of Tatsuya's Scenario, Chandraputra is a legendary Persona User who holds the Silver Key that allows passage through the Ultimate Gate to the world of subconscious, Kadath Mandala. He asks the party to retrieve a Trapezohedron that belonged to his apprentice Randolph Carter. He would get the aid of a Cat of Ulthar known as Lieutenant General Zula to act as their guide. After The Faceless God loses against the party, he leaves behind the Trapezohedron that is Randolph Carter's emotions. Chandraputra reveals to the party that he is in fact Randolph Carter, who had his emotions stolen by Nyarlathotep in the past because of the work Randolph did in mankind's collective unconsciousness and the Kadath Mandala. Through sheer force of will he has been able to take human form and with the return of his emotions he can become a complete human again. Shoggoth are creatures from H.P. Lovecraft's Cthulhu Mythos and appear as slime-like entities. They can take whatever form is necessary for their task and have a myriad of eyes within them. They were created by the Elder Things to be beasts of burden billions of years ago but eventually turned against their creators. They tend to serve human cultists or Great Old Ones in the current era. They show up as blobs full of eyes in persona 2. Shub niggurath, Also known as “The Black Goat of the Woods with a Thousand Young” and “The Black Ram of The Forest with a Thousand Ewes”, Shub-Niggurath is the Great Old One/Outer God of Fertility in Lovecraft Lore. She appears as an enormous cloudy mass which extrudes black tentacles, slime-dripping mouths, and short, writhing goat legs. Small creatures are spat forth, which are either reconsumed into her form or escape to live their own lives elsewhere. She is the most worshipped of all the Lovecraft deities, which include Druidic and Barbaric cults, Hyberboreans, and Muvians, along with non-humans like the Mi-Go and Nug-Soth. She can be summoned to any woodlands during a New Moon. She is believed to have mated with Hastur to produce the Ithaqua, Zhar, and Liogor. She may also have mated with Hastur to produce her "Thousand Young" but could be produced via fission. She is also believed to have mated with Yog Sothoth. It is a boss in persona 2. Wilbur Whateley is a major character in the short story "The Dunwich Horror" by Howard Phillip Lovecraft. In the story, he is apparently the son of Yog Sothoth and a human woman, Lavinia Whateley. His main purpose is to summon the Old Ones into the human world, but when trying to enter a library to steal the Necronomicon he meets his end killed by a guard dog. He is a boss in persona 2. Cthugha is a fictional deity created by August Derleth. He resembles a large fireball and is served by the Flame Creatures of Cthugha. He has at least one son, Aphoom-Zhah, but it is rumored that the fire vampire Fthaggua may be his son too. In Derleth's version Cthugha is a Great Old One, an elemental spirit of fire opposed to the Elder Gods. It shows up in giten as vile race. Innsmouth is very possibly based of the human-deep one hybrids that are present in the novella "The Shadow over Innsmouth", by H. P. Lovecraft. It shows up as an enemy in giten. Specific cults A number of fictional cults appear in the Cthulhu Mythos, the loosely connected series of horror stories written by H.P Lovecraft and other writers inspired by his creations. Many of these cults serve the Outer God Nyarlathotep, the Crawling Chaos, a protean creature that appears in myriad guises. Other cults are dedicated to the cause of the Great Old Ones, a group of powerful alien beings currently imprisoned or otherwise resting in deathlike sleep. Note how just like the real religions that exist in our world existed in the past of the megaten universe, some of these potentially did as well. Since demons exist via observation, it is possible that the demons that show up in game did have worshipers at some point. The Black Brotherhood is a group of international terrorists dedicated to hastening the return of the Great Old Ones. The Brotherhood is made up of people from all ethnicities and ways of life, and, believing that the Old Ones will awaken soon, conduct covert operations, such as attempted political assassinations. Few of its members are taken alive for interrogation, however, as most die shortly after carrying out their operations. The Brotherhood of the Beast is a cult that worships Nyarlathotep in his aspect as The Beast. The Brotherhood is dedicated to fulfilling the prophecies of its founder, Nephren-Ka, an Egyptian high priest of Nyarlathotep in the 14th Dynasty. The Brotherhood of the Black Pharaoh serves Nyarlathotep in his aspect as the Black Pharaoh. Its leadership is primarily of Egyptian descent, though in modern times it has become more inclusive of other nationalities. The cult has connections to the Church of Starry Wisdom, the Cult of the Bloody Tongue, and the Brotherhood of the Beast. It includes a subgroup known as the Children of the Sphinx that specializes in embalming mummies with the heads of animals. The Brothers of the Yellow Sign (or Cult of the Yellow Sign) worship Hastur in his aspect as the King in Yellow. The cult is led by a group of human immortals from the technologically and physically advanced realm of K'n-yan (the cult probably originated in this subterranean land, though others trace it to the serpent people of Valusia). The Chesuncook Witch Coven, or the Cult of the Skull, worships the Outer God Shub-Niggurath. They hold their ceremonies in the deep woods near the village of Chesuncook, Maine. Their rites supposedly include entering a subterranean cavern and descending six thousand steps to a pit filled with hungry shoggoths. The Chorazos Cult is a sect dedicated to the Outer God Yog-Sothoth. The cult was founded in the mountains of Romania in the late 16th century, but later moved to England and then Scotland. The cult developed an unwholesome reputation and was eventually disbanded by locals.7 The cult returned in modern times, at least superficially based in the United States and attempting to awaken Yog-Sothoth.8 Its name suggests an allusion to Choronzon. The Church of Starry Wisdom, or Starry Wisdom Cult, is a cult that worships Nyarlathotep in his aspect as the Haunter of the Dark, as described in the story of the same name. The cult was founded in Providence, Rhode Island circa 1844 by the archaeologist and occultist Professor Enoch Bowen after he returned from Egypt having found the tomb of the unknown pharaoh Nephren-Ka. The cult used an age-old sacred relic known as the Shining Trapezohedron to summon the Haunter of the Dark, who demanded outrageous sacrifices in return for limitless knowledge of the universe. Although the cult was publicly denounced by the other local churches, it nonetheless grew to have a membership of around 200 members. Mysterious disappearances in the area brought the cult under public scrutiny. After run-ins with both local citizens and the municipal government, the church closed and 181 people left Providence for unknown reasons. However, there is veiled evidence that they were dealt a more summary kind of justice than banishment.(If merely banished, they would have taken the Shining Trapezohedron with them.) The church held an extensive library of occult literature. The majority of these books was removed by one Doctor Dexter after the church was raided following the mysterious death of Robert Blake. Though the Providence sect was officially disbanded in 1877, the Church of Starry Wisdom has appeared in other places including Yorkshire, England (1880 to 1890), Chicago, Illinois (where it was known as the Celestial Providence sect, but was later disbanded by the Great Chicago Fire of 1871), Arkham, Massachusetts (during the 1920s), and more recently in San Francisco (though the group was reputedly destroyed by arson). A few contemporary sects may still exist in Canada. As recently as the 1970s the cult was present on Bioko (Fernando Po) in Equatorial Guinea. The Cult of the Bloody Tongue is a cult in Kenya devoted to Nyarlathotep. The group has branches in other parts of the world, but the original sect is by far the most powerful. The Esoteric Order of Dagon was the primary religion of the town of Innsmouth, Massachusetts in the early 20th century. Its members were dedicated to the worship of Father Dagon, Mother Hydra, and Cthulhu.